Toward that objective, one of the urgent requirements set forth for Dong Nai City is precisely the innovation of its growth model.

The urgency of innovating the growth model

For the 2026-2030 period, Dong Nai City targets double-digit economic growth. To achieve this goal, Dong Nai City identifies growth model innovation as one of the urgent requirements.

In reality, with the growth model utilized in the past, the economy and society of Dong Nai City have achieved many impressive results. However, within the new development context, this growth model has also exposed limitations regarding planning, human resources, and investment attraction.

Dong Nai City has long been regarded as the industrial "capital" of the country. Nonetheless, the process of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into industrial parks across the city still faces many limitations, which are not yet commensurate with the potential and development requirements of the new period.

According to the Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee and Chairman of the City People's Committee Nguyen Van Ut, Dong Nai City currently hosts approximately 2,300 FDI projects with a total registered capital of around 45 billion USD; however, the majority remain concentrated in processing and labor-intensive industries, where the added value is not yet high. Furthermore, the linkage between FDI enterprises and domestic enterprises remains limited, and the proportion of high-tech projects is still low.

Along with that, the pressures regarding social housing, healthcare, education, and urban infrastructure for workers are growing increasingly severe.

Particularly, in this new development stage, one of the challenges that Dong Nai City is confronting is the quality of human resources. According to the Chairman of the City People's Committee Nguyen Van Ut, the city's human resource quality currently fails to meet the development demands of the new era, especially the need for personnel in high technology, logistics, digital transformation, and innovation.

Taking Long Thanh Airport as the nucleus to restructure the development space

During a working session between a Central working delegation and the Standing Committee of the Dong Nai City Party Committee on May 18, Comrade Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Member of the Political Bureau and Head of the Central Policy and Strategy Board, assessed: Dong Nai City currently possesses many new development conditions regarding land, population, and transport infrastructure. "With Long Thanh International Airport, Dong Nai City commands all 5 modes of transportation," Comrade Nguyen Thanh Nghi evaluated.

During the working session between the Central working delegation and the Standing Committee of the Dong Nai City Party Committee on May 18, General Secretary and President To Lam requested Dong Nai City to coordinate with ministries and sectors to ensure the progress of key projects: Long Thanh Airport Phase 2, the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau railway, airport-connecting routes, and inter-regional infrastructure. Long Thanh must be placed within a connection network with Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh, the Mekong Delta, the Central Highlands, the South Central Coast, and cross-border economic corridors, so as to truly become a driving force for widespread spillover effects.

With those advantages, Comrade Nguyen Thanh Nghi stated that to innovate the growth model, Dong Nai City needs to restructure and form new driving axes. Concurrently, it must shift from growth based on land, labor, and processing to growth driven by science-technology, innovation, and data. Accordingly, the city needs to focus on developing strategic industries such as high technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), smart logistics, and new economic models, with a particular emphasis on digital transformation.

Also at this working session, General Secretary and President To Lam requested Dong Nai City to architect a new growth model, elevating the city beyond the boundaries of a traditional industrial center. The new position demands that Dong Nai develop through productivity, technology, knowledge content, innovation capacity, and spillover vitality toward domestic enterprises, rather than relying heavily on industrial land, project volume, and cheap labor. Investment attraction must adopt higher selection standards, prioritizing projects that bring along technology, governance, supply chains, training capacity, and the ability to link with domestic enterprises. Simultaneously, the city must review and adjust projects that consume vast amounts of land, utilize low technology, contribute limited value, and exert heavy pressure on infrastructure, the environment, and social welfare. "Dong Nai's land, labor, and infrastructure are strategic resources; they must be allocated for long-term value," General Secretary and President To Lam emphasized.

In particular, General Secretary and President To Lam clearly specified: Dong Nai City must take Long Thanh Airport as the nucleus to restructure its development space. From Long Thanh, an ecosystem comprising an airport urban area, aviation services, trade, finance, conferences, exhibitions, training, healthcare, tourism, and high-quality services must be formed. The city needs to promptly formulate a comprehensive master project to develop the Long Thanh Airport urban area, Nhon Trach, and the adjacent regions.

Phạm Tùng

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/